Save Water | Give Life Well Report: Sanjon de Santo Cristo

Community Details

When the Living Water Nicaragua team arrived in Sanjon de Santo Community, 21 families and a local church were dependent on six unprotected hand dug wells and piped water to support all of their water needs. Because of this, families were often times left without water, much less, safe water to drink, and as a result, suffered greatly from diarrhea and severe dehydration among other preventable water–related illness. Desperate to change their water situation, community leaders submitted a written request to Living Water Nicaragua, and the team responded! 

The Living Water Nicaragua team, with support from the community and church, were able to successfully implement a safe water solution benefitting 21 families residing in the Sanjon de Santo Community! The community’s commitment to securing safe drinking water went beyond initial help and participation. The Water Committee members were also willing to be trained to maintain the well and manage its water resources – to help secure safe drinking water for generations to come!

Hygiene Promotion

The lessons on hygiene and sanitation were taught outside – in the morning for the adults and in the afternoon for the kids.  An oral hygiene packet was given to each one of them and the team addressed the following lessons: disease transmission, germs, hand washing–proper techniques and water saving methods, latrine perception, diarrhea doll–causes of diarrhea, good–bad hygiene behaviors, disease transmission stories, clean hands clean hearts, proper care of the pump and keeping the water clean. During the lessons, the team took pictures of each person of the community that attended and made picture frames for their pictures for both the kids and adults. Participants enjoyed the hygiene lessons and also the shows that the team presented to them, such as the magic show and songs in Spanish for kids. There was a good attendance and good participation in the hygiene lessons. A piñata was played after the dedication of the well, where all the community participated and enjoyed it. 

Community Interview

“The situation in the community has been very difficult because the water is not always available to us,” shared 30–year–old community member and housewife, Santa. “The well provides water for three communities and has an electrical pump, but the electricity is turned off if we can’t pay the electricity bill… We have water at 9PM and it goes for three hours…but in the morning we have no more water. When the electric company disconnects the electric supply (because we can’t pay our bill) we have to get water from the open well that we have. To draw one bucket of water from the well, it takes three people because the well is deep and too dangerous for just one person. One person could fall down into the well. …The well that we have, even when we cover it, it can be dirty because animals like cockroaches and bats can fall in and even dirt from the road.  Now our situation is going to change, as we will now have more hygiene and better health. ”

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